> The question was prompted recently by the (overpriced?) Americans and
> their proposed guidelines.
I have read similar arguments against what was written in the Digital
Manifesto, sent out to the waves by EP, and in most of the arguments I have
seen a genuine lack of depth to justify the apparent unreality of the
figures.
Being an EP member for many years, we have become accustomed to keep in mind
the operational importance of the Cost of Doing Business ( CODB) which most
of our colleagues never bother to estimate. For details and aids to
calculate it, just jump to EP or EPUK .
Basically , what lies behind the CODB is a well documented evaluation of
what is the REAL cost for you to open doors every day of your working days
throughout the year. I am sure that if some of you take the time to evaluate
an estimate , including everything you pay for in a day at your
Studio/Office, you may be surprised at how much you are underpricing your
own services, meaning, you are giving for free many things that should be
billable.
I had the chance to meet Seth Resnick( responsible in many ways for the
database of the CODB in the EP site and the Digital Manifesto as well) in
Miami last Nov, when he was giving a seminar about how to run a business
under a digital enviroment. He disclosed the info to be supplied at the
Digital Manifesto, given it's inminent release, and we talked extensively
about it, and it came as a surprise to most in the crowd to realize how many
billable things in a Digital Workflow we are just giving to our clients
(starting with Time), for peanuts or just for free.
Unless everyone has an idea of what is his/her cost to open doors, there is
no possible way to define Guidelines for pricing, and all estimates, coming
from the US or anywhere, will seem unrealistic.
The CODB , when applied to digital, produces higher figures, because of the
rapid and in many cases sudden death of equipments and the need for faster
replacements, ( contrary to film photography), and lots of investments on a
yearly basis, that have to be recovered, in combination with the enhanced
and fastest services we are providing thanks to digital, are not properly
billed, and add up to our yearly cost, this is, as a cumulative loss.
We must not take as reference any person with one single camera, a couple of
lenses, an old computer and the like, to evaluate the CODB, since this might
even be considered an irreponsible professional, this is, setting ALL the
trust in the world to just one camera, one computer, etc, to provide Digital
Services( Back up is THE word in digital).
There are many well informed colleagues in this list who may help in
building some basic Guidelines and maybe with the aid of the AOP, some light
could be shed on these matters, but first, the CODB must be seriously
evaluated on an individual basis, and maybe, some Poll of sorts should be
conducted to gather info about this at a national/regional level, as a
formal starting point.
Regards
Jorge
Jorge Parra Photography
APA / EP
www.TheStylePortfolios.com
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